Imagination

Is that imagination—or what are those points of light?

No, it is not imagination. Not even imagination. In fact, the very subtle impressions of our senses get stored. For example, in the optic nerves, subtle impressions of light are stored. So as the nerves at the back relax, those subtle points of light are released from there. As for the ear—now, the ear you see up here is not the real ear. The real ear is the inner mechanism, the subtle sense. In it, many impressions of sound are stored; the subtlest vibrations have been stored. So when they relax, many sounds will resound within—which sadhus and sannyasins take to be the Anahad Nada. Nothing is happening. Those subtlest stored impressions of the ear are being released.

Beloved Osho, my imagination is very strong. Sometimes when I close my eyes, I see myself sitting with you and there are no more questions. Then I feel loved and accepted. Whenever I experience this, I feel so joyful. Is this real, or just a mind-game to keep me away from reality?

If you can manage it exactly the same, again and again, then it is not imagination. Then it is not the stuff dreams are made of, because you cannot repeat a dream. But if you can imagine such a thing only once, and you cannot manage to experience it exactly the same again and again, then it is a dream; then it is a mind game. Don't waste time on it. This is the distinction between dream and reality: reality is that which remains as it is. Dream is something that happens once and is gone. And it is not in your hands to bring it back, you cannot manage to dream it. Every morning you will open your eyes -- your room will be the same. Every night you will close your eyes -- your dreams will be different. That which remains the same is the real, and that…

You said that if we see visions of ram or that we are dancing with krishna, to remember it is only imagination. But the other night you said that if we were receptive we could communicate with christ, buddha or krishna right now. Is that communication also imagination when it happens, or there are meditative states in which christ or buddha is really there? A little difficult to be understood.

Then why call it Krishna? There will be no form. Why call it Jesus? These are simply symbols, linguistic symbols. You are acquainted with the word "Jesus", so when that presence fills you and you become part of it a vibrating part of it; when you become a drop in that ocean, how to express it? You know the most beautiful word for you may be "Jesus" or the most beautiful word may be "Buddha" or "Krishna" -- these words are fed in the mind, so you choose certain words to indicate that presence. But that presence is not an image; it is not a dream. It is not a vision at all. You can use Jesus, you can use Krishna, you can use Christ, or whatsoever, whatsoever name has appeal to you, whatsoever name has a love appeal for you. That's up to you. That word and that name…

It is our imagination, through auto-suggestions, that has established us in the world of the finite, in the world of names and forms, in the world of pains and pleasures. Can the same instrument be used to reach the infinite, the absolute, the blissful? The same instrument in the reverse order?

Hitler used every proportion. He had an expert committee to measure how much distance from the audience and how much height was needed so that the eyes are correctly at a tension where they become easily hypnotized and sleepy. And then all the lights would be put off -- in Hitler's lecture hall the only lights would be on Hitler. Nobody could see anywhere else, and so you were forced to look only at him. In a particular situation a particular tension was created. In this tension he would go on saying something for a while. The things that he wanted to put into you would be said later on, when the whole audience had become sleepy. Then the words would simply move into the unconscious and start functioning. Now they have invented subliminal advertisements in films. As you watch a film, between two scenes, just for a fraction of…